A Canadian backpacker who died in Vietnam under mysterious circumstances appears to have been a victim of poisoning, despite initial reports from Vietnamese sources that 26-year-old Cathy Huynh died from “too much wine.”

Ms. Huynh’s death, as well as the death of her American companion, comes only two months after a pair of Quebec sisters were killed by accidental poisoning in Southern Thailand.

She died because she did not receive proper medical care despite the fact that she had been admitted to the hospital 12 hours before her death

Born in Canada to Vietnamese parents, Ms. Huynh was working as an English teacher in South Korea when she left for a vacation to Vietnam with coworker Karin Joy Bowerman, 27. Within hours of their July 29 arrival in Nha Trang, a coastal city of 300,000, the pair checked into the city’s Khanh Hoa General Hospital. By mid-week, both were dead from complications.

Earlier, an unnamed Vietnamese forensic investigator reported that the women had died from drinking wine, according to Tuoi Tre News, an English-language news site operated by Vietnam’s largest newspaper. Nevertheless, the pair’s symptoms — as well as the fact that they died a day apart — are not consistent with alcohol poisoning.

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Furthermore, Ms. Huynh’s mother, Huynh Thi Huong, told Vietnamese media her daughter had no history of binge drinking. Speaking to Tuoi Tre soon after arriving in Vietnam to claim her daughter’s body, Ms. Huong said she suspected botched Vietnamese healthcare had contributed to her daughter’s death.

“I’m really angry at the irresponsibility of the hospital staff. She died because she did not receive proper medical care despite the fact that she had been admitted to the hospital 12 hours before her death,” she said.

On a memorial Facebook page for Ms. Huynh, friends indicated it was too early to tell what had killed her. “All we know at this time is that Kari fell ill, was admitted into a local hospital in Vietnam, and passed away on Monday, July 30th. Cathy was admitted soon after and passed away on Wednesday, August 1st,” reads a post on a memorial Facebook page for Ms. Huynh.

The Foreign Affairs Department would say only that a Canadian citizen has died in Vietnam, and that consular officials in Ho Chi Minh City were trying to get more information.

To cover the estimated $40,000 cost of repatriating Ms. Huynh’s body, friends have initiated an online fundraising campaign that, as of Monday afternoon, had raised $20,000.

After an autopsy, Ms. Bowerman was cremated in Ho Chi Minh City and her ashes sent back to the United States. Ms. Huynh’s family reportedly refused an autopsy, saying they were sure both women had been afflicted by the same condition.

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In June, Quebec sisters Audrey and Noemi Belanger were found dead in their hotel room on the Thai resort island of Phi Phi. The pair were discovered with blue toenails and blood-tinged faces inside a room covered with vomit. By the time a concerned maid forced her way into the room with a hotel master key, the sisters had been dead for at least 12 hours.

The cause of the women’s deaths remains shrouded in mystery, but officials suspect the sisters had been stricken by severe food poisoning. “I don’t understand if they were sick why they didn’t ask for help. They are girls who know how to look after themselves,” Isabelle Soucy, the girls’ former high school art teacher, told Postmedia News at the time.

The deaths were strangely similar to a 2009 case on the same resort island when two women, an American and a Norwegian, were found poisoned in their adjoining rooms. There were signs of vomiting, but the deaths remain unsolved.

So far, the deaths have had no effect on Canada’s official travel advisory for Thailand, which remained set at “exercise high degree of caution,” the second-lowest rating. Vietnam retains the same warning.

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